Physicians Can Manage Their Online Reputation and Online Reviews

Physicians Can Manage Their Online Reputation and Online Reviews

For a physician, negative reviews and opinions being published online can hurt their reputation and their practice. Defamation can come in many forms. It could be an angry review posted by a disgruntled patient on HealthGrades.com or RateMDs.com. It could be a newspaper article that contains misleading or inaccurate information.
Any doctor trying to control their reputation will have a number of tactics at their disposal. There are right and wrong ways to handle online criticism, and while some of them can prove successful, others will be detrimental to their reputation.
Physicians will need to use different tactics to combat negative reviews than they would use to fight inaccurate information posted by news organizations. Their best defence, however, will be in creating a strong online presence that’s positive and able to get out in front of any negative influence.Managing Reviews and Reputation
We understand that physicians count on their reputations in order to bring in clients and continue their practice successfully. We have developed a number of tools and resources to help physicians monitor their online reputation and seek out negative content and combat it. We have detailed here the best practices for protecting one’s reputation and for fighting back against negative content online. Our services allow you to sit back and relax while we take care of all the heavy lifting. We can get your reputation back on track and protect your practice while you concentrate on running your business.Business Reputation
We offer a reputation management service for your business that comes in a few different tiers. We can offer simple monitoring to let you know what’s being said about you and how positive or negative your reputation is. Or we can provide a full-service package that includes reputation management, where we seek out and correct any misleading and negative content online and build up your reputation to where you want it to be. This is something that every doctor can use in this digital age, where their reputation can be constantly under attack. You need protection for your reputation to ensure that it stays intact. When you rely on your reputation to ensure business keeps coming in, you can’t really put a price on how valuable it is and the efforts that will be needed to preserve it.Personal Reputation Defence
Most physicians can benefit from personal protection for their reputations. This service is designed to combat the kinds of negative effects that occur when someone posts negative reviews or blogs or creates articles that personally attack the physician. While the law doesn’t permit this information to be removed, in most cases, we can bury it under a mountain of positive reviews and the kind of content that puts you in a good light. We can suppress that negative content to the point where your reputation starts to shine. The damage those negative items cause then decreases greatly.
Our Best Tactics for Reputation ManagementPromote facts and keep it positive.
Some doctors go as far as asking their patients to agree not to write reviews. That’s going to end spectacularly bad, though, as it tries to suppress the natural tendencies of consumers. Many times, these kinds of agreements would not be held up in a court of law. Doctors also risk turning away those patients who have been with them a long time. There are even specifics sections of the internet devoted to shaming physicians who engage in this practice.
It’s far better to try to monitor the kind of criticism that’s appearing and make sure facts are being put out there to counter them.Monitor Criticism
Your professional profile can be displayed on whatever physician site you frequent. You can use that profile as a means of defence against negative press and attacks. You may not be allowed by law to engage your critics, but you can deal with problems in a general manner.
If the patient says that your services seemed like they were rushed, you can counter them by saying that your practice is one of the few in that location that offers that specific kind of treatment. That means you have to serve as many clients as possible as part of your responsibility to the community.
If you can answer negative remarks and reviews with positive and creative answers, it can help to combat criticism effectively. You may notice that some criticisms are true, and if that is the case, then you can take that opportunity to fix the problem.Counter with Positive Facts
You are better off not trying to threaten media companies. They will use that as ammunition against you. Instead, answer their attacks with positive, factual information. You want to show that they have tried to hurt you unjustly.
Get in Touch with the Editor or Writer
You can talk to the person who edited or wrote the piece and offer factual information that counters their statements. They may retract it if you can present a compelling argument.
Keep at it. If you continue to work to promote your reputation and protect your practice, then you are more likely to be successful than if you just give up after one failed attempt.Get support from other patients
No matter where the negative comments come from, you can use the power of your satisfied customers to your advantage. If you can get enough positive reviews out there, then you will overwhelm the negative ones. Those positive reviews can help to counter inaccurate newspaper stories as well. You can turn your negative reputation around through simply overwhelming it with positive reviewsBe Careful about How You Treat People
Online forums are a good place to find out about a doctor’s bedside manner. If you do what you can while the patient is in your care, you can mitigate those negative posts and ensure that people have a positive view of you once they leave your office. If you have to rush through their appointments, then let your patient know why. Be open and honest and explain yourself if something you do is going to make the patient uncomfortable or feel like they got less than great treatment. Also, provide your patients with an outlet for getting their questions answered, such as through your nurses or receptionists. You can even give then your email address, but be sure you respond if they send you an email.
Ask Your Patients to Provide Feedback
You can request that your patients write good reviews for your practice and for you. You want to be careful about asking for outright praise, but you can gently prod them to provide something positive.
Talk about how much you value your patients’ feedback and give them some suggestions about where they may leave feedback.
Use your website to provide links to positive content.
Follow up with patients to encourage them to leave feedback.
Use an Online Reputation Management Team to Protect You
You might find yourself under fire from the media, and in those cases, it may not be enough to go it alone. If a newspaper agrees to retract a negative article, you still have other sources that are reposting the story that you may not be able to deal with. This is the kind of circumstance where you need some professional help.
A professional monitoring service can notify you when positive or negative content about you is published on the Web. It’s helpful to know when negative content is being posted online so you can do something about it. It is one of the key factors in protecting your reputation online. It can take a lot of time and energy to protect your reputation, and you may not have time to spare. Why not hire professionals to take care of it for you? Their efforts are sure to be more effective than your own.
They will create a large amount of positive content to combat the negative ones. With the tools provided by the online reputation management firm, you can take control of your reputation and drown out the negative voices.